Tips for FE6?

[Harvey]

My tips for FE6.

1. Generally speaking, you want to use Sword units in this game since this game has weapon imbalance meaning hit rates for axes and lances are shaky or just mediocre. If you want to have axe units, stick with paladins and Heroes. Gonzales may be strong but he requires a lot of time and investment due to the slow supports this game has.

2. While supports are somewhat optional(I say somewhat because its a debate whether they are mandatory or not) It doesn't hurt for some units to get them. Rutger x Clarine + Rutger x Dieck ensures that Rutger will be a killing machine. Granted supports are slow but they have a use which is noteworthy.

3. Speaking of Rutger, you need this guy during the first half of the game. Some say that on Normal, paladins are good enough to serve as boss killers but the problem is that they all have lower skill growths than Rutger and Rutger with a killing edge can just instakill most bosses. Once you start getting Milady and Perceval, he can be used as a filler.

4. Some chapters can only be accessed depending on whom you train. Training anyone from Ilia(Shanna or Tate) will lead you to the Ilia route which is the easiest route.

Training one from Sacea(Sin or Sue) will lead you to the Sacea Route which is the hardest. If you want to go to Ilia, Shanna or Tate's exp must be higher than either Sin or Sue and vice versa.

5. Similarly, chapter 9 has two villages that depending on which you select let's you go to a different route. The village on the left leads you to chapter 10A where you get Gonzales, Geese, Echinda and Larum and this chapter is again the easiest. The right one goes to chapter 10B where you have Gonzales, Geese, Bartre and Ephiram and is a much harder route.

If you are into Gonzales, visit the left village. This is because Gonzales level will change depending on the route selected. He will start at lv 5 in chapter 10A and lv 11 in Chapter 10B. The thing is, he will have same bases regardless and to make full use of his potential, chapter 10A is recommended. 

6. Try not to depend on Roy as a combat unit. He may be good early on but his late promotion hampers him big time. 

7. If you're low on cash, just arena abuse using Rutger.

8. Maps are quite long in this game so you can't beat chapters in one sitting like how you would in FE7. Be very cautious.

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Harvey

[ping]

1 hour ago, Harvey said:

3. Speaking of Rutger, you need this guy during the first half of the game. Some say that on Normal, paladins are good enough to serve as boss killers but the problem is that they all have lower skill growths than Rutger and Rutger with a killing edge can just instakill most bosses. Once you start getting Milady and Perceval, he can be used as a filler.

Small comment on this: Rutger's edge in terms of bosskilling comes mostly from his great speed. He should be able to double bosses very reliably the moment he joins, which is something Deke can't boast with. But basically, as soon as Deke doubles a boss, he's better than Rutger - a bit stronger, more bulky, about as accurate, and they both start with a C sword rank. I'd even say that Deke is almost as good a candidate for the first Hero Crest as Rutger is - Rutger's crit bonus makes him generally better at boss killing, but Deke's axe rank makes him more helpful for the fights before that, and since all bosses are stationary, a lost turn on the bosskill usually doesn't spell game over.

Of course, hard mode is a different story, given that Rutger gets some stat boosts and Deke does not.

2 hours ago, Harvey said:

Training one from Sacea(Sin or Sue) will lead you to the Sacea Route which is the hardest. If you want to go to Ilia, Shanna or Tate's exp must be higher than either Sin or Sue and vice versa.

It's the sum of Shanna's and Tate's gained XP against the nomads, not counted individually.
Anyway, I think people overstate Sacae's difficulty. Yes, nomads are more annoying to deal with than steel-wielding pegasus knights, but they're still manageable. I wouldn't recommend choosing my units based on that route split on the first playthrough - maybe the 2nd one, if you want to see both routes.

[Harvey]

3 hours ago, ping said:

Small comment on this: Rutger's edge in terms of bosskilling comes mostly from his great speed. He should be able to double bosses very reliably the moment he joins, which is something Deke can't boast with. But basically, as soon as Deke doubles a boss, he's better than Rutger - a bit stronger, more bulky, about as accurate, and they both start with a C sword rank. I'd even say that Deke is almost as good a candidate for the first Hero Crest as Rutger is - Rutger's crit bonus makes him generally better at boss killing, but Deke's axe rank makes him more helpful for the fights before that, and since all bosses are stationary, a lost turn on the bosskill usually doesn't spell game over.

The problem is that Rutger will be able to kill off bosses that easily who can be more of a threat to a lot of units even for Dieck. Dieck for as far as I can tell isn't nearly as reliable as him despite his solid utility. Without any tactics, Rutger can rip off Scott and Gelero pretty easily whereas Dieck  can't. Not saying that Dieck is worthless but considering that Rutger has the highest skill growth in the game which is needed to hit stuff reliably, he is your lord and saviour during the first half.

4 hours ago, ping said:

It's the sum of Shanna's and Tate's gained XP against the nomads, not counted individually.
Anyway, I think people overstate Sacae's difficulty. Yes, nomads are more annoying to deal with than steel-wielding pegasus knights, but they're still manageable. I wouldn't recommend choosing my units based on that route split on the first playthrough - maybe the 2nd one, if you want to see both routes.

Don't you have a choice of whom to train on either side? I mean, do you need to train both Shanna and Tate to actually go to Ilia and likewise for Sacea?

As for Sacae's difficulty, just giving tips to give the player an easier time with the game. What's wrong with going to the Ilia route on your first playthrough?

 

[ping]

Deke and Rutger really aren't too far apart in terms of accuracy. The both start with a base of 12, and while Rutger will pull ahead thanks to his higher Skl growth (and one more point through promotion), the Skl difference isn't higher than about 3 points on average when they promote (including the promo bonuses). That's 6 hit, or rather 4-5 hit since Rutger's Luck stat is worse, so it's really not a big advantage. The higher speed, however, allows Rutger to double Erik (Deke would need 2 Spd procs, which is very unlikely at this point) at base, Wagner with only one Spd proc, Leygance, and Henning (especially if you promote him), all of which Deke can't do unless he's speedblessed.

48 minutes ago, Harvey said:

Don't you have a choice of whom to train on either side? I mean, do you need to train both Shanna and Tate to actually go to Ilia and likewise for Sacea?

As for Sacae's difficulty, just giving tips to give the player an easier time with the game. What's wrong with going to the Ilia route on your first playthrough?

Nah, the game adds all the XP your Peg knights gain, and compares the sum to your nomad's total XP gain. (and it actually uses XP gained, not total character level) If Shanna and Tate both gain 5 full level-ups, while Sue gains 8 levels and Shin gains no XP at all, you go to Ilia. Because of that, it's a good idea to give Shanna some love early on if you really want to go to Ilia, even if you don't want to use her long-term, since you can use at least one of the nomads as long as you keep an eye on the XP.

There's nothing wrong with going to Ilia, but I wouldn't recommend choosing your team based on this route split. If someone wanted to use both Sue and Shin, I wouldn't advice against it, or say that they absolutely have to use both Shanna and Thite to avoid Nomad Hell. As I said, Sacae is a bit trickier, but someone who can beat chapters 1-16 will also be able to beat either option of this route split.

[B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N]

On 11/10/2017 at 4:23 PM, BANRYU said:

I'd like this game better if it wasn't just so gosh-darn player-hostile. SO many new units join at level 1, and the map design / paralogue requirements are pretty sadistic at times. Personally, I had to abuse save states and arena grinding pretty heavily in order for it to be a passable experience for me. I'd say I still enjoyed it, though having my save file destroyed and all the sadism of Ch14, 14x, and the chapter where Klein shows up (forget the number) kind of soured the experience for me just a bit. 

If you think you'll like it, you probably will! Just be aware of what you're getting into haha. Maybe I'm just a baby about this stuff and it won't bother you so bad either. 

19 hours ago, DodgeDusk said:

If you've been playing Eliwood Normal Mode, then prepare for a difficulty jump in this game, even on Normal. It's not super hard or anything, but Eliwood Normal is a breeze compared to Binding Blade's Normal Mode.

Oh dear; so I imagine this game is gonna be a bit harder than the player-friendly FE7?  That's alright; I need something of a challenge  :P

16 hours ago, CatManThree said:

The supports grow slower than you can believe. Its really annoying and probably something you should be aware of.

Ah, well.  At least it's not like Awakening where the supports are practically crucial to getting good units.

[B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N]

8 hours ago, Harvey said:

8. Maps are quite long in this game so you can't beat chapters in one sitting like how you would in FE7. Be very cautious.

That's alright.  My main time for playing Fire Emblem is during the train commute to school, so I usually don't expect to finish a chapter during said ride.  Plus, it takes forever for me to decide which units to pick, how to arrange them, and what items to give them.

[BANRYU]

48 minutes ago, B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N said:

Oh dear; so I imagine this game is gonna be a bit harder than the player-friendly FE7?  That's alright; I need something of a challenge  :P

YES. 'Player-friendly' is NOT a term I'd use to describe this game lmao. 

[DodgeDusk]

51 minutes ago, B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N said:

Oh dear; so I imagine this game is gonna be a bit harder than the player-friendly FE7?  That's alright; I need something of a challenge  :P

Mm-hmm. I find Normal Mode a little too easy--Hard Mode is perfect for me. But I'd definitely recommend Normal Mode for a first run (though unless you're getting a completed save from someplace else, you can only pick Normal Mode at the start).

Oh, and do yourself a favour and pick the left house. You'll understand what I mean when you get to it.

[B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N]

1 minute ago, DodgeDusk said:

Mm-hmm. I find Normal Mode a little too easy--Hard Mode is perfect for me. But I'd definitely recommend Normal Mode for a first run (though unless you're getting a completed save from someplace else, you can only pick Normal Mode at the start).

Oh, and do yourself a favour and pick the left house. You'll understand what I mean when you get to it.

Left house it is, then.  I'll try to remember that.

[KritDawg]

My experiences with the RNG has been rather different from most other people, so what worked for me may not work for you. Like, in both of my playthroughs, my Lilina was RNG-blessed and capped Magic, which is to be expected, as well as Speed. She murdered everything, just had to be careful that I didn't expose her to any physical enemies. Lugh ended up sucking big time, he was a slower and MUCH weaker Lilina, 10 Magic at 20/1!; his entire role was backup staff duty. Alan was Speed screwed, and Lance picked up mid-game and carried me through the endgame as my best Paladin. Gonzales took a bit of training, but he ripped through hoards of enemies with Killer Axes. Rutger was RNG-screwed pretty bad and couldn't deal any meaningful damage, even after promoting. Fir, on the other hand, I trained her in the chapter I got her and she was one of my deadliest units, Strength turned out great. Miledy and Dieck, of course, were fantastic. Armour Knights are awful, I really tried with Barthe but he just couldn't keep up.

Other than those anecdotes, my best advice is to keep a brisk pace. The maps are huge and many chapters are on a timer, so it's best not to dawdle. That's sometimes easier said than done, with massive amounts of reinforcements and promoted enemies showing up fairly early when compared to the other GBA games. Just plan accordingly, spend a decent amount of time reviewing the Preparations screen. I also found it helpful to keep track of my weapons and other supplies with pen and paper. I'd keep an ongoing tally of which units I use and what weapons they take, which made buying and stocking weapons easier. I find money a bit more difficult to come by in this one, so I will admit that I've arena abused here and there to save up cash for things like Physic staves and Killer weapons.